After the Last Show
by NotUrAverageMusician
Summary: The Eye is having the Horsemen stay in a small town looking for new recruits who have the skills to be part of the Eye just until the publicity on them dies down. They are all staying in an Eye-owned house until it's time for them to go back in the magic business, but until them they have to do something they've never really done- act somewhat normal. Do they have what it takes?
1. Chapter 1

**_I'm going to do a series of one-shots all about the lives of the four Horsemen after their last big magic show. The Eye is having them stay in a small town looking for new recruits who have the skills to be part of the Eye just until the publicity on them die down. They are all staying in an Eye-owned house that has a lot of cool stuff until it's time for them to go back in the magic business, but until them they have to do something they've never really done- act like somewhat normal people. Do they have what it takes? Let's hope so!_**

****Daniel was running around his house like a madman. All Dylan had told him was to grab the "necessities" and scram. Well, Daniel was not a man who likes to be rushed. He likes to take his time, but of course, he only had thirty minutes until the Eye would drive a car up to his front door and give the special knock that signaled that he needed to skedaddle. But, Daniel was wasting his time, like always. He was trying to decide at the moment whether his antique clock is a "necessity." Daniel sighed and decided that it was quite in fact a "necessity" along with everything else in his bedroom, bathroom, and kitchen. Right to this moment Daniel had stuffed two duffel bags, three backpacks, and one big rolling suitcase which all matched of course.

Daniel was just stuffing his baseball card collection into his suitcase when he heard the noise. _Knock, knock…knock…knock, knock, knock_. Daniel let out a frustrated moan- that was his cue. He started bringing his large suitcase to the door. When he opened it he was met by a large man who looked like he could beat anyone up who crossed him. Of course, Daniel wasn't thinking in terms like that. All he wanted now was to make sure all his belongings made it into the car the man was driving.

"Look, here's my bag." Daniel scoffed, shoving the suitcase into the guy's hands, then he started heading out for the car, leaving the driver at the doorstep. "There are a bunch of other bags in there for you to grab too."

The Eye driver stood at the doorstep, puzzled. _Who does he think I am?_ He thought, but as the Horseman was already inside the car, the driver just shrugged and went inside to grab the rest of the bags.

Daniel hoped beyond hope that he would be the first one in the car, but of course when he stepped in he was greeted by Merritt, his last choice out of all the Horsemen. His older companion smirked to see Daniel's unease.

"Let me see…" Merritt started, as he started using his mentalist talents on the fuming Daniel. "You are mad because you wanted this car to yourself and because I am your least favorite of all of us. You packed so much because you couldn't decide what was necessary to bring and… you're in love with Henley Reeves."

"Good to see you too, Merritt." Grumbled Daniel as he slid into the black leather seat, the one across from Daniel. The Eye car was actually more like a limo with two bench seats facing each other on either side of the car.

"So how have you been, man a whole week apart from each other seemed crazy. I mean every time I got out of bed I heard your voice inside my head ordering me to make it again and have a high fiber egg white breakfast." Merritt teased. Daniel chose to ignore him and pretend he was busy on his phone.

Finally, the driver had thrown J. Daniel Atlas's entire luggage set into the trunk and they started moving again, this time to Henley's apartment. She greeted the scene in the car with much more happiness and much less luggage than Daniel did.

"Hey there, boys." Henley sat down next to Daniel who was so happy that she did, but was trying to make sure that she didn't notice it. "What's new?"

"We've only been apart for a week," Merritt said, "but I bet you missed my pretty face every minute of it."

Henley laughed. "In your dreams. Aren't you excited that we're all going to relax in one place for a while? It's amazing that we're going to a small town too! I mean I've always been a city gal, so I think a change of scenery would be nice."

"I grew up in a small town." Merritt laughed, "As long as you are fine with everyone knowing who you are and where you live and pretty much everything about you, you should be fine." Henley and Daniel (who was born a city boy too) raised their eyebrows.

"Alright, last stop." Came the voice of the driver. The limo was now at the corner of a busy street.

"Wait, this can't be right." Daniel insisted, "This isn't a house."

"This is where he told me to pick him up." The driver shrugged. The "he" the driver was talking about was Jack Wilder, the youngest Horseman who was yet to be picked up.

"Where is he?" Henley wondered. Then she noticed a boy with a leather jacket who was sitting at the corner on the sidewalk get up and walk towards the car. He only shouldered a backpack, which Daniel thought was totally unreasonable.

"Hi!" Jack smiled as he hopped in the car next to Merritt.

"Jack, where's your house?" Merritt asked him.

"It's well, uh… down there." Jack widely gestured to the road we just picked him up at.

"Where is 'down there' and where are your parents? You're not even a legal adult yet!" Daniel exclaimed.

"Ah, well, you see… they're away on business. That's right, business. And I live in a house around that other corner." Jack mumbled, his mood already darkening.

Henley could sense that Merritt and Daniel were not done yet with their questioning, but she gave them both a look to shut them up before they did. Seriously! Why don't boys have any sensitivity? "We're glad to see you, little man." Henley smiled, "How was your week off?" Jack was very happy for the change of topic in his favor so he gave a very detailed description of the meal that he ordered at a new pizza place over his break.

"We're here." The driver announced, "Enjoy." Then, he very promptly pushed the Horsemen out of the car, through their luggage on the ground, and sped away in the car again.

"What the?" Henley wondered.

"Danny here got him mad." Merritt explained. Jack and Henley both nodded their heads at the explanation like it was everyday routine, which made Daniel hurt.

"Whatever. Let's see our new house." He said to change the subject. The Four Horsemen all turned a 180 to look at the scene.

Their new house sat at the top of a tall hill. It was a yellow house that looked like it had three stories. There were lots of windows and a dirt pathway to walk up the hill to the front door. There was already a car in the driveway, Dylan's; he had promised that he'd meet the Horsemen there to help them out.

"Let's go!" Jack started scampering up the pathway, always eager for a new adventure. The rest of the gang quickly followed him.

Jack pushed open the door and let out a gasp. The house looked very modest on the outside, but on the inside it appeared to be very modern. There was a huge flat screen TV with all video game counsels imaginable, a fully stocked fancy kitchen, shiny light wood flooring, and stairs leading up to even more cool stuff.

"This place is awesome!" Henley exclaimed.

"You like it?" came Dylan's voice. He appeared after stepping down the stairs. "Welcome to the ultimate Eye-renovated Horsemen estate."

"Oh yes, it's very nice." Daniel said, trying to make himself look professional in front of the Eye man. That meant for him not to freak out about the sleek leather couches and the TV fit for kings.

"Very hip, thanks Dylan." Merritt told the former agent. Jack snorted and had to cover his mouth to retain his laughter of the older man's use of the word "hip".

"Alright then I think we should get right down to business." Dylan said, meeting each Horseman's eye, "We need a story to prove that you guys aren't the Horsemen."

"But we are the Horsemen." Jack said. Merritt face palmed.

"You know that, I know that, but we don't really want everyone here knowing that." Dylan explained, "So I've come up with a great story. Merritt, you are Jack's father."

"Ha! You're my _kid_." Merritt teased. He knew how much Jack hated being called kid. Sure enough Jack scowled at the floor.

"Henley, you are Merritt's younger sister."

"_Way_ younger sister." Henley made clear.

"Yes, and Daniel, you are a family friend who's staying with them for a while."

"Alright…" Daniel said.

"So Daniel's new last name is Bannon and the rest of you have the last name of Ritzer." Dylan said, "You all keep your first name to avoid confusion. You guys got it?" The Horsemen nodded, "Good. I'll catch up with you guys later on- have fun in your house, but remember your mission- try to find some magic talent around here." Dylan started going towards the door.

"Bye!" The Horsemen said in synch.

After the door slammed behind the man there was chaos.

The Horsemen whooped and jumped all around. Daniel promptly turned on the TV and Henley went out to look at the beautiful garden in the back. Jack went upstairs to claim his room and Merritt, being the chef in the gang, started to try out the high tech kitchen.

It was almost too good to be true.

**_Please review! And I will be taking requests for future chapters. Thanks for reading!_**

**_-NotUrAverageMusician_**


	2. What's Jack Short For Anyway?

**_Thanks for the reviews! It makes me feel so happy when people tell me they like my work! Hope you all like chapter 2 titled: What is Jack Short For Anyway?_**

Henley woke up bright and early in her new bedroom after her first day in the house. Last night was awesome. After a lot of arguing on who's room would be who's Henley decided to pull the "because I'm a girl" card. Now she smiled at her victory of the biggest and best room in the house- the master bedroom.

She quietly snuck out of her room after changing into her running clothes and crept down the hall. Merritt and Daniel's rooms were across the hall from each other, they both settled for the identical middle-sized bedrooms. The loudest snoring Henley had ever heard was coming from Daniel's room, Henley had to suppress a laugh. Then she snuck by Jack's room, the poor guy got the smallest room, but there really was nothing she could do about it, he lacked in seniority. Plus all of the Horsemen knew that Jack sleeps anywhere but his room most of the time. Henley has found the kid during their time together sleeping on the floor in the middle of the kitchen, sprawled on a coffee table, and when Henley made him shop for shoes with her once- crammed between two shoe racks. Henley was pretty sure the kid had some sleep disorder.

Henley had made her way down the stairs undetected by any boys and opened the door. Henley smiled as a warm summer breeze blew her hair around and she heard the birds chirping in the air. Daniel, Jack, and her had been amazed at all the scenery last night and the fact that from their new home, the stars were actually visible. City people were missing out.

And on account of the lovely sidewalks and beautiful trees in their new neighborhood, Henley had decided to take a morning jog.

She started off down the sidewalk, proud of herself for staying fit, but her jog didn't last that long.

"Yoo-hoo!" called a voice. It sounded like it was coming from her new neighbor's yard. Sure enough, when Henley turned she saw a woman a bit older than her who was out tending her garden.

"Hi!" Henley said, she tried to start off again, but the lady wouldn't let her.

"Are you my new neighbor?" the lady asked.

"Yes." Henley really wanted to get back to her jog.

"My name's Cara Wood, and _would_ you like to come up and chat?"

Henley didn't want to seem rude, so reluctantly she walked up to Cara's house. Her jog would have to wait for another time.

"So what's your name?" the neighbor asked.

Henley immediately responded, "Henley Reeves… oh, I mean Henley Ritzer."

If Cara had noticed the fumble she didn't say anything about it. "So what brings you here to Willowood?"

"Oh, well… we just wanted a change of scenery from the city." Henley fibbed. _Talk about a nosy neighbor_.

"Who are you here with? Do you have a kid? My son has been the only one on the block for a while now."

"Oh yes, I'm living now with my brother, Merritt, and his son, Jack, and a family friend, Daniel." Henley answered, "So yeah, my _way_ older brother has a kid."

"Oh that's nice, maybe we should get-together and have Jack hang out with my George."

"That sure sounds like fun…" Henley was practically hitting herself for coming over to this lady's house in the first place.

Cara squealed and Henley resisted the urge to cover her ears, "That's great! Let's plan something out for later."

"Sure."

Cara furrowed her brow, "Just one question- what is Jack short for anyway? We don't like to use nicknames in my household."

Now it was Henley's turn to look puzzled. Honestly after a year on the run with the guys she thought she knew everything about them, but now she doesn't even know Jack's real name? What kind of a friend is she?

"I'll just have him tell you meet him."

As Henley walked away (back to her own house because she had already wasted her jogging time) she thought about all the things that Jack could be a nickname for.

There was the easy one- John, which can also work for Jonathan. Also, there's Jacob, but Jacob branches out to names like Jacoby. Then there's Jackson or Jacques that pretty much have Jack in the name.

Still annoyed that she didn't have an answer, Henley stormed into the house to meet a few boys eating Cheerios at the kitchen table. Henley marched right up to Jack, looked him in the eye, and said "What's your name?"

Jack raised his eyebrow. "Huh?" The other Horsemen looked as confused as he did.

Merritt spoke gently, "Henley, you know his name. It's Jack."

"Yes, I know that," Henley explained, "but I don't know what Jack is short for. So to reword my question, what is Jack short for? What is your real name?"

Jack liked how flustered over something so stupid as his full name, and being the showman he was, was not going to let the information go so easily. Jack decided he'd have a little fun with this. "Hmm… you seek answers, yet are you sure you want to know them? Answers can be dangerous things."

Daniel rolled his eyes, "Of course we want them! Now answer her question."

Daniel would not admit it, but he was very curious now to what Jack's name was and being the control freak he was, would not stop until he got the answers.

"Well, it's right in front of you. It's right in front of you." Jack chanted as he spooned his cereal into his mouth.

"This isn't funny, Jack, or whatever your name is. Tell me! I'm dying to know!" Henley was going crazy.

"Just tell the poor woman your name!" Merritt laughed, but inside, he was dying to know too.

"If I told you, what's in it for me?" Jack asked.

Daniel face palmed, "You have got to be kidding me."

Jack put his hands up in defense; "You all want something from me, so why can't I have a little something from you?"

"What do you want?" Henley asked.

"I want a bigger room." Everyone else at the table gasped at this statement.

"No way are you getting a bigger room." Daniel scolded.

"Then I just won't tell you." Jack said as he put his bowl in the sink.

The remaining Horsemen looked at each other. Daniel's eye twitched. They all knew Jack was capable of keeping secrets. None of them had ever heard a word about his past. They never knew he was allergic to nuts until he threw up after a dessert that Merritt made once. They never knew that he was a math genius until they asked him to run a few numbers for them after a show. The Horsemen were well aware that Jack was only a what you need-to-know basis kind of guy.

"Guys, I really want to know." Henley pleaded.

"Me too, it's so mysterious. I can't even use mentalism to find out the truth." Merritt sighed.

"I'm with you guys, this is driving me crazy." Daniel said.

Jack chuckled, leaning on the kitchen counter. He shook his head and smiled. The Horsemen were in for it and he was going to get a bigger room.

"Fine, we'll pay your price." Daniel said to Jack, "So come over here and tell us what your name is!"

Jack slowly walked over, not even trying to hide the smirk on his face. "My name is…"

"Answer us!" the older Horsemen screamed.

"Jack." The youngest finished.

"_What_?" Merritt said.

"Yeah, my full name is Jack. Not short for anything, it is just Jack. It's on my birth certificate." He insisted, "See? The answer _was_ right in front of you." Jack coolly sat down on his chair and beamed widely, "So who's room do I get?"

Henley groaned. "I can't believe it."

"Let's make this fair, we'll pick a name out of my hat." Merritt grabbed the newspaper and wrote names on three scraps of it. Then, he pulled off his hat and put the names in. He shook them up and asked Daniel to pick out a name.

Daniel put his hand through the hat and pulled out a folded paper. He read the name out loud. "Daniel… wait what!?"

"Oops, sorry Danny boy, looks like you've got to give your room to the kid." Merritt laughed. He exchanged a knowing look with Henley. They both knew that Daniel's name was the only one in the hat.

Jack whooped and hopped around the kitchen. Daniel just stared at the name in his hand in shock, wondering why whenever they picked names out of the hat, it was always his.

**_Thanks for reading! Remember, I'm still looking for requests for future chapters so please comment if you have any ideas._**

**_Happy summer!_**

**_-NotUrAverageMusician_**


	3. The Golden Watch

**_I would like to send a huge shout out to Miss Emeralds who has made my day with her amazing comments! I hope you get a bigger room! Us older kids need to stick together! I also want to thank Take The Chopsticks And Run and monkeygirl77 and ChloemmaKAREN (yes, I plan to add some Danley- thanks for the suggestion!) for commenting too. That's everyone who's commented so far so if I missed you- I apologize. Time for chapter three! This is inspired by a request from monkeygirl77. Thanks for the idea, girl! I fell in love with it right when I read your comment._**

Merritt heard the ding-dong of the doorbell in the afternoon after the room switch. He started towards the door wondering who could be there. He hadn't met anyone so far.

Just as Merritt put his hand on the door Henley came running down the stairs shouting "NO!" But it was too late. Cara Woods, the annoying neighbor, marched right in the house like she owned the place.

"Hi there, Henley!" she greeted. Henley waved weakly.

Merritt raised his eyebrow at the stranger. "I met Cara on a sort of jog this morning and might have promised to hang out." Henley explained.

Cara pulled a boy with her same blonde hair and blue eyes into the house. He wore kacki pants, a plaid shirt, and a tweed jacket. Henley figured this was her son, George. "George and I decided to come and say hi."

"Come on in." Merritt said, ignoring Henley's rapidly shaking head.

Just then Daniel and Jack ran in the house from the backyard.

"The thing is I don't know if the jetpack will be able to stay hidden behind us. Everyone would be able to tell it's there." Daniel was saying.

"What if we- oh hi…" Jack stopped when he saw the people at the front door.

Henley spoke, "Daniel, Jack, this is our neighbor, Cara, and her son George."

"Nice to meet you." Daniel said, skeptically.

"You too." Cara said, "So why don't George and Jack hang out while us grownups chat."

Jack could feel the weight of a thousand bricks fall on his shoulders. He looked from Daniel to Henley to Merritt, pleading them with his eyes not to leave him alone with this guy. Merritt shrugged, then spoke, "That sounds good."

Jack groaned. "Here, let's go to my room." George walked up the stairs behind him.

"I brought Pictionary!" Cara squealed, holding up the bright blue box.

All the older Horsemen gave a sarcastic, "Yay."

Back upstairs, Jack and George were in Jack's room. "So do you like video games?" Jack asked, pointing to his in-room Wii.

"No, mother won't allow me to play such games." George responded.

"Okay… how about we play tackle football outside?"

"I wouldn't want to get my slacks dirty." George insisted.

_Who is this guy?_ Jack thought. "Fine. What if we did some skateboarding? I have two boards."

"That does not seem quite enjoyable to me." George said.

"Well, C3PO, what DO you like to do!" Jack snapped.

George calmly said, "Playing with cards is fun." He saw one of Jack's sets on the bedside table.

Jack got down the cards, "So now we play like Poker?" Jack wasn't really all in to using cards as games, cards meant so much more than that to him, but he had to keep this kid entertained.

"No, how about Go Fish?"

"Sure, that sounds like lots of fun." Jack said sarcastically, but started dealing the cards anyway. George took off his jacket and something glinted on his arm. A beautiful gold watch with roman numerals for the numbers on the face. The shine reflected in Jack's eyes.

"Is it a bird?" Henley asked Daniel. They were in the middle of Pictionary and thanks to Daniel's not so perfect drawing skills, were totally loosing.

Daniel shook his head. "Is it a giraffe?"

"Ooh, I know!" Merritt said, "A pencil!" Daniel just threw the pencil across the room, right then and there.

"That's it- I quit!"

"Wow," Jack said in awe, "Where did you get that watch?"

"My dad gave it to me, before he left on his most recent tour. He's in the army. Stationed overseas." George said, as he fingered the watch. "He told me whenever I wore it, I would be able to think of him and how much he misses me."

"He sounds like a great guy."

"He is. So should we start playing?" George picked up his cards.

"_Sure_." Jack said.

Thirty minutes later, the older Horsemen had had enough of Cara Wood's stupid board games and wanted her out. So in the nicest way they thought possible, they told them to scram.

George and Jack ran down from upstairs. The Horsemen said goodbye as the Wood's left the building. "Yes!" they all screamed after they left.

"Why don't we watch some TV?" Daniel asked, "Family Feud is on!" So they all settled in on the couch with some popcorn and watched until the phone started ringing.

_Ring, ring. _Daniel went to pick it up. "Hello?"

"Hi, Daniel. George can't seem to find his watch his dad gave him and I'm wondering if you have seen it over there."

Daniel stared at the back of Jack's head and figured he already knew where the watch was. "We'll look around here and bring it over to your house if we find it. By the way, how did you get this number?"

"The phonebook. TTYL!" Cara hung up.

Daniel walked into the TV room and paused the show. "That was Cara. She said that George lost his gold watch over here. Have anything to say about that, Jack?"

Jack squirmed in his seat, "Nope."

"Empty your pockets." Merritt insisted.

Jack looked at their serious faces and knew that they were not going to let this go. "Fine." He groaned. Sure enough, the missing watch was in his front pocket. He reluctantly handed it over to Daniel.

"Why would you do that?" Daniel wondered, astonished, "Cara said that watch was from George's dad."

"You have enough money now to buy things like that." Henley said, "You don't need to steal it."

"It wasn't the gold I wanted." Jack flopped on the couch, "It was the story that came with it. George said that his dad gave him that and he's on a tour overseas. Whenever he wears it, he's reminded that his dad is thinking of him."

The Horsemen nodded solemnly. "We get it. You miss your dad." Henley spoke.

Jack reeled up at this. "No way! I could never miss _him_. He was the worst parent that could possibly walk the face of the Earth! The police called it 'child neglect'. I was on my own ever since my mom ran away from that lunatic!" Jack froze, looking surprised that he had let so much come out of his mouth.

"Is that why you pick pockets?" Merritt asked, gently.

Jack sighed, giving in, "Yeah. That's how I got money; no one paid any attention to me enough to feed me themselves. Everything I had to learn on my own, on the streets. I balanced all of that with school too. No one cares. I bet… my _dad_ didn't even notice that I left. I didn't even live with him anyway after I turned 13 and started working the streets. I never had a family, I don't even remember my mom." Merritt, out of the corner of his eye, saw Daniel quickly wipe his watering eyes. "I'm sorry. That was a lot to dump on all of you. I'll go bring it over to George's, say I found it on the floor in my room or something."

Jack got up, took the watch from Daniel, and walked outside to the Wood's house. The older Horsemen in the living room were still stunned.

"I can't believe how much he's been through." Henley sighed.

"And he always acts so cheerful, I wonder why he wouldn't tell us anything before. He's hiding such a terrible story." Daniel said.

"Let's try to make us all seem more like a family…" Merritt said, then he covered, "You know, for the kid's sake."

"Of course." Daniel nodded vigorously.

"For Jack." Henley said, "We need to be there for him. We need to make sure he knows that he can trust us, it'll be hard since he's gone through so much pain, but I think we can do it."

"We're magicians, we can do anything." Daniel agreed.

Just then Jack walked through the door. "I gave back the watch it's all good now- mmph!"

He was interrupted by a massive bear hug from all of the Horsemen who promised to never let anyone ever hurt him again.

_**Aww! I hope you guys liked this more serious chapter. Keep on reviewing and to Reader- I will do your request real soon!**_

_**Bye guys!**_

_**-NotUrAverageMusician**_


	4. Just Dance

**_Hey Fanfiction! Today is the day of chapter four! I have to admit that I am really liking this Fanfic and send I big thanks to everyone who's read it! I wanted to put in some Danley for my Danley requestors, so here it is! Please read! _**

The Horsemen on their second day in the new house had already grown tired of just looking at their fancy Wii, and decided they needed to play at least one game in order to maintain their sanity.

They searched all over their TV room. In drawers, under couches, and even in the fireplace when they came to the conclusion that even though they were well stocked with consuls, they were not at all stocked with games.

"Oh no!" Daniel cried, "We're going to die!" He held his Wii remote up to the video game gods, "What is this insanity!"

The remaining Horsemen looked at him weirdly. "Chill out," Jack said, "It's just a game."

"Just a game!? No- we need to get a game right now!"

"Hate to break it to you Danny boy, but we've got no car right now to go out and buy one." Merritt said.

"Actually, I have an idea." Henley grinned, all the boys gave her their full attention, "I really want to go on a jog and I still haven't got the chance. The store isn't far from here, I can get you your game in an hour."

"You are the best!" Daniel ran over and gave Henley a hug. Merritt nudged Jack with his shoulder and smirked, but as soon as the hug started, it ended and Henley embarked on her journey.

The running wasn't hard for Henley. She had been the track star at her high school; it was the buying the game part that was tricky. As soon as Henley got to the Best Buy she realized, she had no idea what kind of game to buy.

In the Wii section she didn't recognize any off the games. There were things like soccer games (boring), shooting games (gross!), and Mickey Mouse games (seriously?). Henley really couldn't stand the looks of any of them. And seriously, who plays a Monopoly Wii game, there's an actual Monopoly board game!

Henley was running low on time, so she picked up a Mario Kart one, reasoning that it didn't look too violent. Then, the game hidden behind the Mario Kart one made her smile. She put back Mario and picked up her new game, ready to go.

"Wait, what?" Daniel said, looking inside her shopping bag.

"Ooh! What did she buy?" Merritt asked.

Daniel pulled out the game. It was Just Dance 4. Jack's face fell into a look of confusion. "Seriously?"

"Oh, come on guys! I just picked out the game that seemed the most interesting, we should at least give it a shot." Henley defended herself.

Daniel sighed, "Fine. Let's do this." He put the game into the Wii consul and waited for it to load.

"Well, I'm alright with it, Henley dear." Said Merritt, "I need a chance to show off my rocking moves." Everyone laughed, knowing that from their experience (a very embarrassing experience at an after party for the show once), Merritt dances like a gorilla who lost his leg. Of course, Merritt thinks his dancing skills are amazing, but none of the Horsemen plan on telling him he's a rubbish dancer any time soon.

"Yeah, sure…" Henley said, "Oh look! It's starting!" All the purple and pinck colors flashed across the screen as Henley looked to choose what song to play.

Then she came across one that was a dance crew song, which meant that four players danced different parts of the song. There was one girl character and three guys, so this was perfect. "I want this one." Henley announced.

Daniel could practically hit himself for not insisting to be Player 1, who's the remote that controls the game.

"Istanbul?" Jack questioned, reading the label on the song, "What kind of a song is that?"

"Come on guys, if this is what Henley wants, we should do it." Daniel said.

"Fine." Said Merritt and Jack.

"I dibs being the girl dolphin!" Henley said. She had chosen a song where all of the dancers were actually in animal costumes.

"I want the mouse with the purple hat and pants!" Merritt said.

"I want to be the zebra with the fancy coat!" Jack announced.

"I guess I'll be the parrot." Daniel sighed. He really wanted to be the mouse. Merritt always ruins everything.

The song started and everyone started dancing.

Well, sort of.

Merritt jumped all around the place, constantly crashing into Jack after loosing his footing. Whenever the instructions said to move to the right, Merritt swung to the left. Whenever they were supposed to jump up, Merritt would duck. It was completely ridiculous that he would be that off.

Jack, on the outside seemed like he was holding his own, but looking at his points you could see he had racked up zero. Even less than Merritt. "What the heck?" he would say as he did his moves correctly, but they got marked wrong.

So the real competition was between Daniel and Henley who were getting Perfect scores on all the moves. Their point value soared all the way up to 5 stars by the end of the routine.

The points were added up, showing that Daniel and Henley had a tie, Merritt came in second, and Jack was in last.

"I don't understand!" Jack whined, "I did all these steps the right way, but I kept on not getting any points."

Daniel looked at the kid's remote. "That's because you put your remote in your left hand."

"Well, why can't us lefties be included in this game?"

"You are included, you just have to move your remote to your right hand." Daniel explained.

"I thought America stands for liberty and justice for lefties!" Jack stood up, "I thought that we lefties were accepted into the world after they came out with those backwards guitars! But, alas! We are picked on in a silly game for the Wii? And now that it has started- when shall it end? As a leftie I cannot sit around and watch you play a game that discriminates my kind." Jack glared into Daniel's eyes and gave him the remote, "Goodbye, you egotistical righties! For I am through!"

Jack stormed up the stairs to his room. The Horsemen looked at each other in a confused silence.

"Okay, what was that?" Merritt said.

Henley and Daniel shrugged. "Who wants to pick next?" Henley asked.

"Actually, I think I'm going to try to take a nap." Merritt said as he put down his remote, "You two have fun though." He marched up the stairs to his bedroom.

"So I guess, it's just you and me?" Daniel asked.

"I guess." Henley replied.

"Want to do a duet?"

"Sure." Henley smiled. Daniel picked a romantic looking song where the picture showed a boy and a girl in each other's arms.

Five seconds later that was Henley and Daniel twisting and turning with the slow and romantic music. It gave Henley goose bumps to be held in Daniel's arms- even for the tiny bit that it lasted and Daniel brought her down into a dip and smiled at her in his little Daniel way.

The song was over just as soon as it started. The last little note played through the speakers and Daniel took that opportunity to lean down and kiss Henley on the lips. It was a quick kiss, but a kiss never the less.

That night at dinner, Merritt asked how Just Dance 4 had gone without him.

Merritt could use his mentalism to tell though that something was new between the two and Jack could just tell because of the way they moved their chairs closer together.

Henley shrugged, "It was fine."

"Yep," Daniel said, "Nothing out of the ordinary."

_**Like it? Tell me about it in a review! I'm taking requests so feel free to give me a suggestion for a future chapter.**_

_**See you all next chapter!**_

_**-NotUrAverageMusician**_


	5. Sickness

**_Hi everyone! Thanks for reading! I am going to do a request from Reader (a guest) for this chapter, and I'm really excited about it! So here goes, this is going to be epic!_**

Henley, Daniel, and Merritt were downstairs in their new house, eating cheese omelets that Merritt had made for breakfast. But, there was one seat next to Merritt that was unoccupied and had a now cold omelet sitting in front of it.

"That's it!" Daniel snapped, "He's slept in long enough- it's 8:30 already! He never sleeps in! Time for Jack to get his butt out of bed!"

Henley and Merritt shrugged, fine with the suggestion. Merritt was the one who actually got out of bed to wake the kid because he knew Henley and Daniel weren't such gentle alarm clocks from personal experiences.

Merritt trudged up the white-carpeted steps and rapped lightly on Jack's closed bedroom door. No answer. Merritt tried again, louder this time. Still no sound from the room.

Merritt had had enough so he opened Jack's door. The youngest Horseman was asleep his blankets on the floor and the AC cranked high. Merritt shivered just in the doorframe of the room.

As he approached the bed he saw that Jack's face was pale. Really, really pale. Like a ghost or something, Merritt had never seen anything like it before.

He tried to shake the kid awake. "Jack, Jack." He said as he shook him, "Time to wake up."

Jack didn't stir. This made Merritt worried. He felt Jack's forehead, it was burning.

Merritt quickly ran down the stairs. Henley and Daniel stared up at him, "I think there's something wrong with Jack." Was all Merritt said. The two Horsemen got out of their seats instantly and ran with Merritt back up the stairs and into Jack's freezing room. "He won't wake up." Merritt explained, "And his forehead is really hot."

Henley ran to get a thermometer. "105 degrees." She reported, "That's a _bad_ fever."

"He was complaining about being really hot yesterday, I bet that's why he cranked up the AC. Maybe that just escalated into a fever." Wondered Daniel.

"Let's all try to wake him up, on the count of three- we all scream like there's no tomorrow." Henley suggested, "1, 2, 3."

"AAAAAAAGGGGGGHHHH!" screamed the awake Horsemen.

Jack jolted up and covered his ears. "What the-" he was overtaken by a fit of coughing.

"You've got a bad, bad fever, kiddo." Merritt explained.

"Your temperature is 105 degrees." Daniel said. Jack's eyes grew wide.

"But don't worry," Henley reassured, sitting down on the plush comforter next to Jack, "We'll help you get better."

"My throat." Jack croaked, "It feels like it's on fire."

"I'll get you some OJ!" Daniel immediately complied. Truth is that he is pretty germ crazy. He hates going anywhere near a sick person, but he'll make an exception for Jack. Daniel poured a glass of OJ and quickly used some hand sanitizer. It wasn't like he was going to just get rid of all the sanitation rules for Jack's sake!

He quickly returned to the room and gave Jack the orange juice. He guzzled it down like it was his first drink he's taken in a year. He gave a half smile, "Thanks, I feel a lot better now." Then Jack expectantly hissed in pain, clutching his right wrist.

"Your wrist hurts?" Henley asked, "But you said it felt fine after we bandaged it up." Yesterday, Jack had been tasked with the job of taking out the house's old and rusty mailbox and replacing it with a new one. He had sliced his wrist on one of the parts of the old mailbox.

"Well, it… hurts…now." Jack promised himself that he wouldn't cry or scream no matter how much pain he was in- not in front of the Horsemen.

"Let's take a look at it." Merritt rolled up Jack's long sleeved shirt and gasped. Out from under the bandage there was a red line going all the way up Jack's arm. When Merritt took off the bandage Jack's cut was all puffy and gross.

"I'm no doctor, but that sure doesn't look good." Daniel whistled. He got out his laptop and looked up Jack's conditions on the internet. "Henley and Merritt, could you step into my room for a minute?" Daniel asked.

Once they shut the door, Daniel reported what he had found. "He's got an infection. Some of the rust that was on the old mailbox got into his blood stream. It also will cause fevers too when it's severe, like Jack has. We need to get him to the hospital before that red line of infection reaches his heart."

"What are we waiting for?" Merritt asked.

Two minutes later the Horsemen were driving to the hospital in Cara's car. They said that it was an emergency and Henley more or less stole her keys from her key ring as they drove down the street. In the backseat next to Henley, Jack bit his lip to keep from screaming and fought to stay awake, but he was just… so … tired.

"Jack fell asleep!" Henley screamed.

"Well, wake him up!" Daniel, who was driving replied.

Even after all of Henley's and Merritt's attempts, Jack was not waking up.

"Where's the line?" Merritt asked.

"It's under his shirt." Henley said, uncertain.

"Take off his shirt!" Daniel and Merritt yelled.

Looking at a now shirtless and unconscious Jack, the Horsemen could see that the line had reached just below the shoulder already. They were panicking. The shoulder is pretty close to the heart in their opinion. Daniel pushed down hard on the gas until the Horsemen finally pulled up to the hospital.

"You two take him in," Merritt insisted, "I'll park the car."

So now Daniel was carrying Jack as he and Henley sprinted into the hospital. The doctors wanted to see him at once, so Jack was pulled away from them on a stretcher. And that was it. Dejected, Daniel and Henley sat down in the waiting area as they nervously tapped their feet. Merritt ran through the doors a about ten minutes later.

"Where is he?" Merritt asked.

"They won't let us see him." Sighed Daniel.

"Since when has that bothered us?" There was a mischievous glint in Merritt's eyes.

So after stealing three hospital uniforms, five minutes later the Horsemen were on a elevator going to Jack's room. They saw a doctor heading out of there.

"There is nothing more we can do." She told the three, "You don't need to be in there."

"So he's okay?" Henley asked.

"No, but if he wakes up soon, that's a good sign. We've already done some surgery and tried to pump out the bad blood, but there might be a chance that we were too late." Then the doctor left.

Henley started tearing up and Daniel put an arm around her for comfort.

Merritt took a deep breath, with his hand on the door handle. He wasn't sure if he could handle seeing the kid like this, but he carefully and quietly opened it. The Horsemen slipped into the room to visit their fallen comrade and closed the door behind them.

Henley gave a little yelp. Jack lay, unconscious, still shirtless on a white bed that took up most of the room. There were IVs stuck into his arm and a heart monitor next to him beeping in a random pattern it seemed. The red line had almost reached his heart.

"Oh no." Daniel murmured, bringing a chair over so he could sit near him. Merritt and Henley did the same. Merritt put his hand on Jack's shoulder and Henley and Daniel each took one of Jack's hands. Daniel was surprised how lifeless Jack's hand was. So cold and it was so flaccid. "He's still so pale. He's going to die."

"Don't say that!" Merritt exclaimed. "The heart monitor is still going." But Merritt knew in his heart that the chances weren't good that Jack would wake up. "I always thought of him as sort of a son to me." Merritt admitted. After the words escaped his mouth he wished he could put them back in.

"I thought of him as a brother." Henley told the group, tears streaming down her face. Daniel nodded.

"Why is it always him the bad stuff happens to? Why can't it be some unkind heartless man and not the greatest kid in the world?" Daniel didn't even worry about holding his tears back now.

"You've got to wake up now, Jack." Henley whispered, "The doctor said that you should be better if you wake up soon."

"Do you hear me, Jack?" Daniel said, "Actually I kind of hope you can't because then you'd hear me going all soft." A tear ran down Daniel's cheek.

"I went to him for magic advise." Said Henley, "He was the best friend a girl could have."

"Every time when we were on the run and I saw his smiling face, I would know I was doing something right for once." Merritt confessed.

"He made me smile all the time." Daniel sighed, "I hope he realized how important he was to me."

Then the Horsemen just sat in the room for a long time wishing that their friend would wake up and wiping away their tears.

"We should get going," Merritt finally said, "I don't know how long it will take them to find out that we're not really doctors."

The Horsemen sighed and started walking out of the room after Henley kissed Jack's lifeless hand. They had just opened the door when they heard a weak, "Wait."

And when they turned around they saw Jack with one eye open, smirking at them like he was never sick in the first place. "Heard everything… Daniel."

_**Aww! Thanks for reading! I would also like to send out a special thank you to Miss Emeralds who has put in such kind reviews to my story, it lifts my heart when I read them. :)**_

_**See you at chapter 6 and please review with a request for a future chapter because I have, alas, run out of requests!**_

_**-NotUrAverageMusician**_


	6. From Cookies To A Fire To A Rap

_** This is a real funny chapter in my opinion. From a request given to me by Spirals and Lightning Bolts. I hope you all like it!**_

Henley leaned on the kitchen counter shoving Chips Ahoy down her throat. Daniel, curious, put down the book he was reading and went over to her side.

"So, why so many Chips Ahoy?" Daniel asked.

Henley smiled, "They are my favorite food in the world." Daniel raised an eyebrow, "Well, actually homemade chocolate chip cookies are. My mom used to make the best cookies ever for me when I was a little girl. I really miss them, so Chips Ahoy are my go to snack."

"Hmm." Daniel had an idea already blooming in his head on how to impress Henley. First, he'd get out Merritt's treasured cookbook. Then, he'd look up the chocolate chip cookie recipe and- BAM!- he'd have delicious cookies coming out of the oven. And then Henley would say…

"Daniel? Hello? Are you okay?" Henley asked Daniel, kicking him out of his daydream.

"Oh yes. Never better." Daniel stammered, "Got to go!" He rushed up to Jack's room first.

The kid was lying on his bed, looking bored as ever. The Horsemen had said that after that little hospital scare, he had to say in bed for a while. "Jack?" Daniel asked him, "I need a favor."

"I don't know…" Jack groaned. He didn't want to do any more stupid things for Daniel's sake.

"It requires you getting out of bed." Daniel finished.

"Yes!" Jack jumped out and stretched, "It feels so good to be free! So what's up?"

"I need you to get Henley out of the house so she doesn't see my surprised for her. Just try to keep her occupied for like two hours?"

"Can do!" Jack smirked, "Oh Henley!" he started walking down the stairs to complete his mission.

Daniel shook his head, this kid was too easy. Then Daniel looked across the hall to Merritt's room. This would be the harder part of the mission. Daniel opened the door.

"Hey, Merritt." Daniel said, disappointed the older man was already in his room. It would have been so much easier if he could just steal his cookbook and leave, unseen.

"What's up?" Merritt asked, it wasn't often that Daniel would come into his room.

"I need to borrow your cookbook." Daniel stated.

Merritt gasped, "His name is Marco, I will not tolerate you calling Marco 'cookbook'."

"But it is a cookbook!" Daniel insisted as he wondered if Merritt had gone insane and started talking to inanimate objects.

"Never say that. It hurts Marco's feelings. Anyways, why do you need him so badly?"

Daniel sighed, "It's supposed to be a surprise…. But I want to bake chocolate chip cookies for Henley because she loves them homemade. So please please please can I borrow the cookbo- I mean Marco?"

Merritt shrugged, "Marco would love to help you in your quest for love." Then Merritt opened up his closet and pulled the cookbook out, "He's all yours. Just don't get any flour on him- Marco hates that."

"Did you give him a face?" Daniel asked. On the front cover it looked like Merritt had taken a black Sharpie and sketched a smiling face on Marco.

"Yes I did." Merritt looked proud, and not humiliated like he should have.

"I'll give it back once the cookies are done- thanks Merritt!" Daniel dashed downstairs into the kitchen. Jack must have taken Henley out of the house because there was no sign of either downstairs.

Daniel flipped open the cookbook to page 65 where the chocolate chip cookie recipe was. It looked easy enough, mix a few ingredients here, put the cookies on the tray there, _simple as a card trick_.

Daniel stirred and sifted and threw away batch after batch of mix. He wanted the cookies to be perfect for Henley so he strived for perfection indeed. Finally, he had created the best better ever. There were no clumps of flour, it wasn't too wet, and all of the chocolate chips were evenly spaced apart. Everything was going amazing.

Daniel started to scoop up the batter into tiny chunks like Marco said and place them on the tray. It was going well until he heard the sound of Henley and Jack's voices coming from the front door. Daniel looked at the time- he had been baking for two hours!

Without thinking Daniel took the bowl of batter and Marco and put them on the tray. Then he shoved the items into the preheated oven and made a scram for the door.

"Hi there!" he said as Jack and Henley walked through the door, "So what did you guys do?"

"We went mini golfing at this awesome place near the mall, we biked there." Henley said.

"Did you know how good this girl is at mini golfing?" Jack asked, "I swear she got like twenty hole-in-ones!"

Henley tilted her head back and laughed. "It was so much fun- you can really have a good time with this kid." Jack smiled, "Why don't you guys come with me upstairs to watch the videos Jack and I took?"

"Sure." Daniel said, cookies forgotten. The gang went upstairs to check them out. About ten minutes later Merritt came barging into the room.

"Do you guys smell something burning?" he asked.

"Oh no!" Daniel exclaimed, "The cookies!" The Horsemen ran downstairs.

"What the-" Jack started, looking at his kitchen full of smoke.

"FIRE!" screamed Henley. It was true. The oven was on fire. Bright orange flames surrounded the stove and filled the kitchen with smoke.

The Horsemen quickly got to work. Merritt filled cup after cup of water from the sink and the rest of the gang took turns grabbing them and pouring the water on the oven. Finally the last flame flickered and was smothered away.

Daniel was ashamed. He was supposed to be the responsible person in the group. He is never careless and stupid.

Henley frowned, "Look at the kitchen, everything's ruined." The cabinets framing the oven were singed and the floors were covered in ash. Luckily the fire had been a small one, so the kitchen was the only impacted area, but it was still a complete tragedy for Merritt.

"Where is Marco?" he asked.

Daniel smiled weakly, "In the oven."

"Nooooooooo!" Merritt screamed.

So that afternoon, instead of being a hero for Henley and becoming her boyfriend he was stuck outside doing a funeral for a cookbook. Merritt was crying and Henley was trying to comfort him, but the message between Jack, Daniel, and Henley was clear: Merritt had totally lost his sanity.

Merritt called on Jack to make a speech.

"_Because he's good at making stupid speeches for stupid things._" Daniel muttered. That received him a stern look from the rest of the Horsemen.

Jack got up and stood on the grass with one foot on Marco's new grave plot. "Marcos." Jack began.

"It's Marco!" Merritt sniffled.

"Right, Marco. Well Marco was the best kind of cookbook there could be.

He was always there for you when you need a recipe.

He could tell you how to bake the meals you want to eat.

With his awesome directions, nothing tasted like feet."

Daniel and Henley looked at each other, amused. What started out as a speech was being turned into a rap. Henley started bee-boxing a beat for Jack. Who continued on his second verse.

"He had hundreds of pages with meals inside.

And a table of contents so you could know what to find.

Marco was a cookbook who could bring the thunder.

Too bad right now he is seven feet under!

He was polite and quiet- never needed to be fed.

That's why we won't actually care if he's dead.

So goodbye Marco as we send you on your way.

Your very best dish was the cheese soufflé."

"Word to Betty Crocker." Jack finished.

Merritt got up and left right then.

"What?" Jack asked Daniel and Henley, "I thought it was pretty good."

"I thought it was a little insensitive that you said 'we won't actually care if he's dead.'" Henley said, "But on the other hand it was a pretty cool rap."

"Oh yeah," Daniel agreed, "But next time- make sure you aren't standing with one foot on Marco's grave the entire time."

**_I hope you guys liked that one, I think it was my funniest. Really I wasn't even planning on the rap until I realized that my first few sentences rhymed._**

**_So bring in the requests and thanks for reading!_**

**_-NotUrAvereageMusician_**


	7. Disaster Beach

_**Hi Fanifiction! This is a pretty funny chapter that was written on the requests of both starstone (a guest) and IrisGirl1402. Thanks for the inspiration, guys! I had so much fun writing this chapter! Now let the reading... begin!**_

"I smell a road trip!" Merritt yelled. This morning the Horsemen got their car, provided by the Eye. It was a white Jeep that looked pretty sick. So of course after all that staying inside this past week, the Horsemen were craving some adventure on the road.

"Awesome!" Henley exclaimed, "We should go to the mall!"

"Or we could go get some ice cream or go to that indoor trampoline park!" Jack exclaimed.

"Yeah," Daniel yelled, "Well I think we could go to the stamp museum or maybe, if we're feeling a little adventurous, go into the woods and collect maple syrup from the trees!"

The rest of the Horsemen froze. "What?" Merritt asked in disbelief.

"Never mind." Daniel muttered. They would miss out.

"I was thinking we could go to the beach." Merritt offered, "There's one close by and it's got a boardwalk with loads of good food and stuff. We could have an awesome day at the beach!"

Daniel kind of panicked then. He'd never really been a beach person after a scaring childhood incident involving some French fries and a deranged seagull. But of course, Henley and Jack seemed all into it.

"Oh that is such a great idea!" Henley gushed, "It's been forever since I've gone to the beach! I'd like to work on getting a tan."

"And I can't wait to swim in the water and build a sandcastle!" Jack agreed.

Daniel just stood there; he knew that he wouldn't be able to sway the vote. Merritt always gets his way.

"Well, what are we waiting for?" Merritt smiled, "Let's get ready for the beach!"

Daniel sighed and went along with the plan thinking what's the worst that could happen? Little did he know he was in for a lot of disasters.

Ten minutes later the Horsemen were packed and ready to go. Their Jeep was stuffed to the extreme so they had to tie stuff on the roof. When they got onto the highway they realized the tying wasn't really working as their supplies were coming undone from the knots and flying off into the highway. That's when Daniel asked a question he didn't really like the answer to.

"Did you guys put my bag with my phone on the roof?"

"I think so." Said Jack who had stuffed the car. "Why?"

"Because I want it!" Daniel growled, "My phone can't die!" He was sitting in the passenger seat. "Merritt- roll down the window."

"Are you crazy?" Merritt said, but he rolled down the window anyway. Daniel unbuckled his seatbelt and leaned out the window.

"I think I can reach aaaahhh!" Daniel was flying halfway out the window. Jack sprinted into action and caught his foot before he could fall.

"Oh my god, Daniel!" Henley exclaimed, "Are you okay?"

"What do you think!" Daniel screamed. To all the other cars it looked like Daniel was a flag or something waving out the window. "Pull over!"

"I can't" said Merritt between laughs, "This is the highway!"

"HEEELLLPPP!"

Finally the ride was over and the gang arrived safely at the beach. Daniel stepped out of the car with his hair swooshed up, adding about three inches to his height.

"Well, that's was pretty hectic." Jack said, he had a habit of stating the obvious. "But now we can get to the relaxing part- the beach!"

"Oh yeah!" Henley agreed, "To the beach!"

They walked down to the sand and ocean. Everyone put up a chair, but Daniel's chair had been lost on the highway along with his sunscreen. Since his fellow Horsemen had already put on sunscreen before they left they didn't have any for Daniel to borrow. So he was pretty much screwed.

But Daniel tried to make the most of it as he settled down on his beach blanket under the shade of the umbrella.

"Aw! Look at those cute little kids playing volleyball!" Henley squealed.

"They don't really have much good aim though." Merritt pointed out.

Daniel had just enough time to look up and WHAM the volleyball lodged itself in his eye. "YEOW!"

"Don't worry, Daniel," Jack said a while later as they walked down to the ocean. They both carried boogey boards and Daniel sported a fresh black eye. "The sand is where all the horrible stuff happens. The ocean's where it's at."

They waded in until their waists were under. Jack saw a big wave coming that was perfect for boarding. "Now's the fun part. Watch and learn Danny boy."

Jack caught the wave and rode on his board all the way to the shore. "Cool!" Daniel shouted. Then he spotted one for himself. He climbed on his boogey board trying to do just as Jack did, but unfortunately when the wave came Daniel was leaning too much to one side so he flipped underwater and was tumbling in the ocean with the wave until he reached the shore. Daniel spit seawater out of his mouth.

"Wow, that was something GHAH!" Jack said.

"I have a jellyfish attached to my leg don't I?" Daniel said looking straight foreword. Jack nodded. "I can tell because my leg is on fire! Take it off!"

After Jack wrestled with the jellyfish for a while everything seemed all right again, well except for the huge sting that now covered Daniel left leg.

"Let's do something a little less dangerous." Said Henley as the two of them started walking along the shore, "A walk with help you feel better, and there's no way to get hurt."

"Okay." Daniel agreed. He honestly was just happy he was alone with Henley. It made his leg and eye throb more softly.

They started walking down the beach talking about magic and other random stuff. Daniel was able to make Henley laugh at his jokes and smile, it was perfect.

Then, Daniel was walking a little in front of Henley, but backwards so he could see her. Just as he was about to finish the punch line to his joke, he was pulled to the ground.

"HELP!" Daniel was thrashing all around, "I think I'm tangled in something!"

"Oh my gosh you walked right into this guy's fishing rod!" Henley saw that Daniel was completely knotted up with that invisible string the fishers use for their line. "Don't worry- I'll get you out!"

Thirty minutes later they were back at their beach site and Daniel was covered in cuts since that fishing line sliced him up. "Jeez, Danny boy!" Merritt teased, "It seems like you are disaster prone today, but don't worry Jack and I went up to the boardwalk and got us all a slice of cheese pizza for dinner. Then we can leave."

"Awesome." Daniel said, he winced as he sat down on his blanket.

"Dude, you've got a massive sunburn!" Jack noticed.

"I can feel it." Daniel grumbled.

Merritt passed out the slices. Merritt, Jack, and Henley began stuffing the pizzas in their mouths. They barely paused to breathe.

"Why are you guys eating so fast?" Daniel wondered out loud, he was only on his second bite.

Then there was a cawing from above. Then it multiplied into many caws. You could hear the flutters of wings as they descended down on the Horsemen.

Everything happened in slow motion. Jack was the first to move. He ran right out of the umbrella enclosure yelling "ATTACK!" Then Merritt and Henley jumped out of their seats and took cover. Daniel couldn't move. He remembered his bad seagull interaction when he was just a kid. When he had spilt his French fries and one seagull pecked him all over after taking his meal. That was just one seagull and Daniel was attracting a whole flock.

"AAAHHH!" Daniel yelled as the white birds dove under the umbrella and gobbled up the pizza.

"That wasn't so bad." Jack said as the gang walked back to the car. Actually Jack was the only one who walked alone. Merritt and Henley helped Daniel on either side of him walk. The poor magician was covered in seagull bites now along with his previous injuries.

"I hate the beach." Daniel groaned.

"Don't worry, we're getting back in the car." Henley said.

On the way back home, after a slight push from Merritt, Daniel was flying out the window again.

"SSAAVVEE MMEE!"

_**Hahaha! I hope you guys liked that! Please review and when you review, write in a request for a future chapter. I love it when I get to make someone's idea come to life! So happy summer and I will see all of you next chapter.**_

_**Ta-ta!**_

_**-NotUrAverageMusician**_


	8. Robin Hood

_** Hi guys! Sorry I've been AWAL. I'm in a theatre camp, Anything Goes, and I've had to work a lot on music and stuff and I am so so so sorry it's been so long since I've updated! But I do have a new chapter for you that is based on a request from Miss Emeralds. I hope you guys like it!**_

It was morning time at the Horsemen house and all four of the magicians were eating Lucky Charms in the kitchen. They were all laughing as Jack put on a little show for the group.

"Na, na, na, na. Na, na, na, na. Elmo's World! Na, na, na, na. Na, na, na, na. Elmo's World. Elmo loves his goldfish- his crayons too! That's Elmo's Woooorld! Yeah!"

The Horsemen howled with laughter at Jack's perfect impression of Elmo from Sesame Street.

"Do someone we know!" Daniel laughed.

Jack smirked, "Okay. Hiya fellas! It's me Cara, your next-door neighbor from New Jersey! I was just on my way over to ask if you guys want to play some board games like Pictionary or watch Finding Nemo." He executed his impression perfectly. He sounded like he actually had a New Jersey accent like their awful neighbor Cara, even though Jack did have a strong Brooklyn accent.

The rest of the Horsemen laughed and laughed and laughed. Merritt actually fell out of his chair.

"Wow, you are really good, Jack." Henley commented after they had caught their breath. "We're going to have to watch our backs now."

"What do you mean?" Jack asked with a confused expression.

"She means that you could use that skill as a weapon or something." Merritt explained, "Make someone think they're talking to someone else."

"That's so useful." Daniel muttered, always thinking on the practical side of things, "Maybe we could incorporate that into an act…"

"Hmmm, you're right. Hey I think I'm going to go upstairs." Jack tried to be nonchalant about it as he sprinted up to his room.

Jack paced around his room thinking deeply. Merritt had said his impressionist talent is like a weapon and Jack was totally in to making unlikely things weapons. He could remember the day that he had first figured out that his cards could be used like ninja stars back when he was on the streets.

There was no way he was going to let this opportunity go to waste so that's why he was thinking. Thinking of ways he could use his weapon for good. Like Robin Hood!

Just then Daniel passed by his door, mumbling about something. Jack noticed that Daniel had been in a pretty bad mood for a while now. It was like he was always sucking on a lemon or something. In fact, the only time Jack saw him happy was when he was around Henley…

His thought sent Jack jumping in the air. A cause to fight for! All he would need to do is talk to Henley on the phone using an imitation of Daniel's voice. He could totally set them up and then Daniel would be happy again! Robin Hood will prevail!

First he just had to try out his skill.

Jack found Merritt watching some TV in the living room. Jack called from the kitchen using Daniel's voice. "Hey Merritt, I am a stupid arrogant control freak!"

Merritt nodded, "Glad to see you finally admitted it, Danny boy."

Jack mentally cheered for his victory and knew he was ready for operation love.

That night after Daniel and Merritt had gone out to buy some groceries and Henley was heading to the mall, Jack brought his plan into action. He started with sneaking into Daniel's neat and orderly room and picking out some of his clothes. What? He wanted to get into character.

That's why about a minute later Jack relaxed on his bed dressed in Daniel's brown corduroy pants and button down black t-shirt with the home phone in his hand.

He pressed the digits of Henley's number into the phone and waited for Henley to answer. She picked up on the third ring.

"Hello?"

"Hey there, Henley." Jack mimicked Daniel perfectly.

"Oh, what's up, Daniel? I thought you went shopping for food."

"Nope, Jack went with Merritt."

Henley laughed, "Jack? No way! He's always so lazy."

Jack gasped, he preferred the term 'not physically inclined', "What! He's like the most responsible guy I know!"

"Yeah, and I'm Lady Gaga." Henley deadpanned, "What do you need? I'm kinda looking for an outfit now."

Jack shook off the comment about being lazy and decided to cut right to the chase. "So I've been wondering a lot about stuff."

"Uh huh?"

"And… well…" Jack mentally slapped himself for not actually practicing for this and just sitting around eating all day. Maybe he was lazy…

"Yes, Daniel?"

"I just wanted to say that I really like you." Jack shrugged, that seemed like the best way to go.

"Yeah, I think we're great friends."

Jack facepalmed, "No! I mean that I like you as more than a friend!"

It was silent on the other end for a second, "Really?"

"Yes, of course, Henley." Jack said in Daniel's voice, "I was wondering if you'd like to be my girlfriend."

"Oh, um… that's a turn of events. I already told you that I liked you. Why the sudden change of heart?"

"Oh that's a good question…" Jack panicked, "That I will answer in person later!"

"Um okay, I guess you got over the argument about Bigfoot being real or fake. I guess that was a really stupid argument, glad you are finally on my side."

"Yeah," Jack said, "Bigfoot is totally fake."

Hanley gasped and started shouting into the speaker, "What! Are you insane! Bigfoot is so real! I saw him once when I was hiking! He's rrrrrreeeeeaaaallllll!" All the shoppers around her started staring.

"Oh, I'm sorry!" Jack panicked, "I meant-"

"Save it Danny! We're through!" Then Henley hung up.

Jack sat there stunned, thinking _what did I just witness? _Then he thought about what he really did, _I wrecked their relationship! _

"Oh no, Daniel's gonna kill me." Jack muttered as he passed around his room.

Just then Daniel and Merritt arrived downstairs, shortly followed by Henley.

_Might as well get the punishment over with_, Jack thought as he slowly walked down the stairs. Jack had been grounded only a few times in his life with the Horsemen. One for throwing a fit in a restaurant after realizing they didn't serve breakfast all day. Not his finest hour. And then another time for tricking Merritt into getting him a rabbit. Yeah, that one was crazy. But this one was going to be serious punishment material.

As he approached the kitchen Jack heard Henley yelling. "Oh well if you don't love Bigfoot- you can't love me!"

"What?" Daniel said, confused, "I thought we were over that!"

"Well it didn't sound like that on the phone!" Henley yelled. Poor Merritt was stuck right between Daniel and Henley trying to break the two apart. Wow, Jack had really messed up this time.

"What are you talking about? I wasn't even _on_ the phone!"

"Ha! Nice try- I can't even live in the same house as a Bigfoot hater!" Henley stalked up the stairs, passing Jack on the way.

Jack walked into the kitchen to see Merritt and Daniel completely dumbstruck. "I know who did this." Daniel growled, "And he's in this room."

Jack knew he was busted, "I'm sorry I was trying to do the right thing!"

"Nice try, Jack, but we all know the real culprit is Merritt!" Daniel pointed his finger in the older man's face.

"What?" Merritt exclaimed, "I didn't do anything!"

"Oh yes you did." Daniel insisted, "You hypnotized me into doing that phone call so I could ruin my relationship with Henley!"

Merritt looked shocked.

Jack was so happy this was all going his way. "Well, looks like we're settled then- gotta go!" And Jack danced up the stairs to the happy soundtrack of Daniel yelling his butt off at Merritt.

Robing Hood strikes again!

_**Please review and I'm still taking requests!**_

_**Cya!**_

_**-NotUrAverageMusician**_


	9. Life Is But A Dream, Sir Atlas

_**Hi everyone! Here's chapter 9! I am really excited for you to read this one. It's something that has never been done before in NYSM fanfiction history! So introducing CHAPTER NINE!**_

It was a quiet night in the Horsemen household and each magician slept soundly in their beds with visions of sugarplums dancing in their heads.

Merritt was snoring quietly and Henley was comfy in her fuzzy blankets. Jack was sleeping deeply like all other nights, of course, but this was the first time he had actually slept in a bed since the hospital night.

Daniel was in his room snuggled up next to his stuffed monkey dreaming about Henley and him going on a picnic. Daniel was wearing a full-blown suit and armor from the medieval times with a green feather on his helmet and Henley was dressed in a purple princess costume with a tall cone hat that had tassels coming out of it. Everything was going perfectly. Daniel was reaching into his pocket and he took out a ring box. Henley gasped and smiled and then dream Daniel said: "Princess Henley, will you marry-" There was suddenly all this commotion, loud banging and clattering and screeching coming from the woods.

Bigfoot stepped out. He was wearing a fedora and looked a lot like Merritt actually. He was clanging two pans together and screaming at the top of his lungs.

"Bigfoot!" Daniel said, looking up to the heavens. "WHY!"

Then suddenly Bigfoot-Merritt sprinted at top speed towards the picnic. "Henley is MINE!" He shouted. Before Daniel could do anything, Bigfoot-Merritt scooped up Henley and took off towards the woods.

"Help! Help me Sir Atlas!" Henley shouted, but it was too late. Bigfoot-Merritt had already escaped into the woods leaving poor Sir Atlas behind with a ring.

"This stinks." Daniel muttered, "Every time I get Henley to pay attention to me- even in my own dreams- Bigfoot ruins it!"

"There is something you can do about it!" Came a voice from the shadows. Daniel raised an eyebrow, it sounded eerily familiar, but Daniel couldn't place the voice to a name.

"Who's there?" Daniel whimpered. Then he saw a rustling in the shadows.

"Tis I, the great wizard Jack!" Jack then walked out of the woods wearing a long blue robe with a tall wizard hat that was blue as well. Daniel was alarmed to see that there was a super long beard on his chin that went down to his hips, even though he still looked like the kid he was. Pretty creepy.

"Wow." Daniel didn't know what to think. "That's um... cool. But there really isn't anything to do. Plus this is just a dream. Bigfoot always comes in and ruins it; I've dreamed it like a million times. Normally I just stand here and wait to wake up."

"Yes, but have you had me to help you? I think not!" Jack waved his wand and two horses appeared in the grass. "Hop on, Sir Atlas, and I promise you that I can fix this awful nightmare." Daniel shrugged and hopped on the nearest horse, a gray one with a black mane. "All we have to do," explained Jack the wizard as he hopped on his stead, "is believe."

Daniel raised his eyebrow. "Seriously?"

"Ah, well you are always one to doubt magic so I can use my powers for now to get our horses to move super fast, but when the time comes, I warn you Sir Atlas, you will have to believe all on your own." Said Jack.

"Whatever, let's just get going." Daniel rolled his eyes.

"Okay, hocus pocus!" And with a flick of Jack's wand the horses started running, but at the speed of a jet or something. Daniel had to cling onto the reins for dear life to stay on the horse. He looked over and saw Jack texting on his cell phone, not even holding on, beard flying behind him. This made Daniel wonder if they actually used cell phones in dream world.

Finally the horses stopped at the foot of a large grassy hill. On the top was a black castle large enough to rival the empire state building. The sky around it was a deep purple that wasn't really inviting and there were storm clouds all around sending down lightning and thunder.

Jack shook his head. "This is the only part of Dreamtopia I can't protect from evil. It's sad."

"Merritt controls all this?"

Jack nodded. "He actually used to be a nice guy. Well, that's what legend says. They say that if someone could make him truly believe in good they would be able to break the curse and set all of his prisoners free."

"Well, why don't you do it, Mr. Believepants?" Daniel retorted.

Jack smirked, "Because I'm not _that_ good. I like fighting too much. I'd personally start with slugging him in the face."

Just then from behind the two travelers there was a rumbling and a cloud of dust. All the color drained from Jack's face. "What is that?" Daniel asked.

"_That_ is the reason no one has been able to break the curse. They are Bigfoot's henchmen. Picture a giant fedora with legs and arms that wants to kill you."

"Oh gosh. That's bad, right?"

"Really bad, but don't worry. I can hold them off for a while for you. My advice is to run. These guys may be small, but they're vicious. Run to Henley and remember to believe, Sir Atlas, believe." Then Jack started running to the henchmen with a huge grin on his face. Maybe he did like fighting a little too much.

Daniel saw the first fedora monster as it ran towards Jack and was encouraged to get moving. Fast. So he took off in the direction of the haunted castle. Daniel ran up the broken path and flew through the big doors of the palace. He looked all around; there were too many doors. About seven on each side of the hallway. Daniel knew he didn't have enough time to check every one. He took off his metal hat and did the first thing that came to mind: started banding on it with fist shouting "Come out Bigfoot!"

There was a grumble and a sound of two massive feet hitting the floor. Thump, thump, thump, thump. The sound was coming closer and closer.

Daniel started to immediately regret his decision to rescue Henley. Was it possible to die in Dreamtopia?

"WHO GOES THERE!" came the voice of Bigfoot-Merritt.

"Sir Atlas!" Daniel squeaked.

"Ha ha ha, a little weakling coming to save your princess, eh?" Merritt stepped into full view and to Daniel's dismay was carrying a humongous bird cage with Henley inside it. She had her hands on the bars and was trying to push out the wall or something. "Well, don't even bother, there is no way you can get past me."

"I bet I can." Daniel retorted, even though inside he had no idea what to do. Out of habit, he reached into his back pocket, where he normally kept his deck of cards. To his surprise there they were!

Jack had told him to believe… ha! Believe-schmeave he could get Henley some other way, the magician way.

"Oh Merritt," Daniel called to the beast, "Why don't you pick a card?" He fanned out his deck.

Bigfoot rolled his eyes, but took a card anyway. Didn't this guy know he was just prolonging his death?

"Now get rid of the card. Put it in your pocket or something."

Bigfoot promptly ate the card at that command.

"Okay… that's fine too, I guess. Now tell me what your card was."

"The 5 of clubs." Bigfoot grunted.

"That's what I thought." Said Daniel smiling. He opened his deck and all the cards had been turned into 5s of clubs. "So… I was wondering if I could have princess Henley back."

Bigfoot couldn't hear because he started laughing and laughing and laughing his heart out. Bigfoot was smiling and happy. "It's been so long since I have seen a magic trick!" he said.

Then a huge cloud of sparkles started coming around Merritt-Bigfoot. Daniel cowered in fear; _I'm going to die because of a sparkle spell!_ But then the cloud cleared and just the normal Merritt was left.

"I did it!" Daniel exclaimed, "I broke the spell!"

"Yes, thank you friend." Merritt said, "It's nice not to be Bigfoot anymore. You can have your princess back, I've very sorry." Merritt opened Henley's cage and she ran into Daniel's arms.

"Thank you Sir Atlas!" she exclaimed as she hugged him. "I'm so happy that I want to sing!

Thank you for your bravery

For saving me from slavery

And now we can be together

In my castle forever

Thank you for breaking the spell

Now I am feeling swell!"

"Wow! Thanks Henley." Daniel smiled, "I guess I am a hero now."

Just then Jack walked in. "Congrats on breaking the curse, Daniel. But, because of this song we're going to have to cut out your wedding with Henley because you have to wake up now."

"What?" Just then the room started spinning faster and faster. "No! Please no! I don't want to go! I want to get married! NOOOO!"

Then Daniel opened his eyes and he was in his room again. The rest of the Horsemen were hovering over him.

"Daniel, are you okay?" asked Henley, "You just started shouting: NOOOO!"

Daniel sat up, "I just had the craziest dream. And you were there, and you, and you!"

"Alright Dorothy your time in Oz is over." Merritt laughed. Jack shook his head, no doubt thinking that Daniel had lost it.

"No I'm serious. You need to stay away from evil spells, Merritt. And Jack, never grow a beard. And Henley, just please stop singing!"

_**Hope you guys liked it! Please tell me if you did- I love reviews! BTW if you haven't heard yet, Now You See Me is going to have a sequel coming in 2014! Hooray! **_

_**Keep on reading!**_

_**-NotUrAverageMusician**_


	10. Babying

_** Hi everyone! Let me just totally express how horribly sorry I am for not posting like at all for the past month! I was on vaca and then I started school with all honors classes so things have been wicked busy around here. And then I kept on starting chapters, but then hating them and starting over. But do not worry any longer, my writer's block is healed and now so here's the next chapter!**_

Merritt walked down the stairs to see Jack passed out on the rug in the TV room with the station turned to Cake Boss. He was on his back with his face turned to the side, hair covering his eyes. His chest slightly moved up and down in rhythm of his slow breathing. Merritt shook his head. The kid could fall asleep anywhere. Merritt went into the room and turned off the TV and started to leave. Then Jack rearranged himself on the floor and Merritt paused in his tracks. That must be awfully uncomfortable, laying on the floor like that. _Just leave him alone_, Merritt thought. But then the fatherly side of him kicked in, a side of him Merritt hoped no one knew existed, urging him to put Jack on the couch at least.

Surrendering to the father in him, Merritt gently heaved Jack into his arms. The boy stirred, but didn't wake yet. Letting go of a breath he didn't know he was holding, the older man eased Jack onto the plush white leather couch.

Happy with the work he had done, Merritt started to leave once again, but out of the corner of his eye, he saw Jack shiver a bit. It was autumn after all, of course Jack would be cold in a t-shirt and shorts. And Merritt even found himself shivering in the crisp room. He needed to get Jack a blanket. That would be the thing a father would do for their kid.

So Merritt started to go back up the stairs to get his flannel blanket out from his closet.

Meanwhile, Henley was hungry. It was one of those crazy food cravings she gets every once and a while where she absolutely has to have chocolate or pasta or whatever other thing she was craving that day. Today it was popcorn. And Henley thought that she would most absolutely die if she didn't get any buttered popcorn, like from the movies.

So she hopped into the kitchen from where she was reading on the deck outside to satisfy her hunger. Just as she was about to put the microwavable popcorn in the microwave, Henley heard a noise. It sounded like a snore. She needed to investigate.

She crept into the direction of the snore- the TV room and lo and behold, there was Jack snoozing away on the couch.

He looked peaceful and in an odd sort of way. Henley had rarely seen Jack without a smirk or grin lighting up his face. But the thing that alarmed Henley most of all was that the teenage magician had goosebumps covering his arms. He looked freezing!

Henley shook her head. She wasn't going to let this go by. After all, how could she call herself the woman of this house if she didn't take care of the boys?

What Jack needed was a blanket, but not just any blanket, the one that Henley had knitted herself out of sheep's wool. It's the warmest thing ever and completely cozy. It's perfect. So Henley decided to go up to her room and grab it for him. It was the least she could do.

Just then, Daniel walked in the front door carrying his bag of groceries. He had been out all day and all he wanted to do was crash on the couch. After putting away his food he practically ran into the TV room and almost jumped onto the couch. He almost did because Jack was sound asleep on it.

_Why does that kid get all the best sleeping spots around here?_ Daniel thought. He was just about to wake him up and yell at him to find another spot, but then he noticed how comfy he looked. Daniel didn't want to be the person to wake him up. That would make him seem like the villain, and Daniel was working on trying to be a better person after all. And what would a better person do at a time like this? Why he would get the poor kid a blanket because he sure as heck looked cold!

And if he was being a better person, then he might as well get Jack's favorite Snuggie from his room. If there were points for this, Daniel would be kicking some major butt.

So Daniel ran upstairs into Jack's room, grabbed Jack's Snuggie, and ran back down. When he got to the living room, he wasn't alone though, Merritt was there with a flannel blanket folded in his arms and Henley was coming around from the other corner with that super itchy sheep blanket she knitted.

Henley laughed, "Let me guess, you all got a blanket for Jack too?"

Merritt and Daniel shrugged, embarrassed.

"Then we might as well give him all of our blankets to make him extra warm." Henley continued. She proceeded to drape her blanket over the sleeping Jack. Then Merritt put his green flannel one over hers and Daniel put the Snuggie on top of Merritt's blanket. Finally, Henley tucked him in.

Now Jack looked like a burrito wrapped in the Horsemen's blankets, but he was warm and that was all that mattered for now.

"If that won't keep him hot, I don't know what will." Merritt said.

"C'mon, let's let him rest. Wanna eat some popcorn with me?" Henley asked.

The men shrugged and were led into the kitchen where each of them took a huge plastic bowl full of microwave popcorn drenched in butter.

Just as they were finishing up their bowls they heard a scream from the TV room:

"IT IS SO HOT IN HERE!"

_**Haha! Please please please review and I'm going to work on some requests for the next chapter so stay tuned!**_

_**-NotUrAverageMusician**_


	11. Old Lady Daniel

_**Hi guys! I'm back! Hope you guys like this chapter I had a lot of fun writing it! This is a request from Lupin fan1 who asked for Merritt to interview one of the Horsemen. Well I completely twisted it up and I think you're really gonna like the result. Happy reading!**_

"Yes!" exclaimed Merritt as he ran into the kitchen where the rest of the Horsemen were eating breakfast. "He's dead!"

"Excuse me?" Henley asked, taken aback.

"Walter Williamson Crawford the ninth is dead!" Merritt flashed the town newspaper in her face.

Henley read the front page out loud. "We are sad to report that our town journalist, Walter Williamson Crawford the ninth, for the interview section of the town Gazette has recently passed away. He was the ninth in his family to take on the job and has entertained us all every issue with some really interesting interviews his hit one about the dry cleaner clerk Helga." Henley paused, "What's so good about this, Merritt?"

"I'll tell you why he thinks that this is such good news." Jack took the paper out of her hand to show them the full size picture of Walter Williamson Crawford the ninth who looked ancient. "It's because Merritt finally found someone who's older than him."

Henley and Daniel stifled their laughs. Merritt glared. "You better start running, kid!" Jack did as he was told and sped off to his room.

"Anyways," Merritt continued, "just read the last sentence."

Daniel picked up the newspaper and read, "Now we will be in need for another interview journalist for the Gazette, if you wish to apply contact us."

"Seriously, Merritt?" Henley complained, "You'll mess up the whole paper."

"I think I'll be a great journalist. I'm going to call them right now." Merritt said. He marched over to the phone with his head held high.

"You're never going to get the job anyway!" Daniel called from behind him.

Ten minutes later a very triumphant looking Merritt had a new job and a new reason to tell Daniel he's wrong.

"I'm thinking for my first story I could do a piece on one of us." Merritt said later that day. The remaining three Horsemen were already sick of the journalism fad with Merritt. He was starting to ask them questions about everything they do. Stupid questions like why Daniel put the milk in before the cereal. Now that got the Horsemen into a fight real fast.

"You can't do an interview on one of us, Merritt." Henley said, "We're trying to be undercover."

"But how cool would it be if I got one of the exiled Horsemen to come clean on my first headliner?" Merritt insisted.

"Dude it's the Willowood Gazette. Not the New York Times." Jack laughed.

"Why are you always so sarcastic?" Merritt asked, "Is it because of your adolescence?"

The Horsemen gave a collective groan.

"Here, if you want someone interesting to interview, I'll give you something interesting to interview." Daniel spoke up. This got Merritt's attention. "There's this old lady Cara told me about once, her name is Ms. Gillan. She's the town shut in. According to Cara, no one has seen her outside her house in years. Seriously, she gets all her groceries shipped to her and everything! Rumor is that she has a 'You Are Not Welcome' mat. If you could get an interview with someone the whole town hasn't seen in years, then you will have a great story."

Merritt could see the headlines now: Local Reporter Makes History! It will be a great day for mankind. "Sounds great, I'll pay her a visit."

Pretty much three minutes after Merritt left the house, he went back in. "Well, you were right about the 'You Are Not Welcome' mat. She wouldn't see me."

"Of course not, Merritt, she's the town shut in." Henley rolled her eyes. "I've got to go to the mall so I'm trusting you not to hound any more old ladies while I'm gone…"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah." Merritt groaned. Henley, satisfied, got her keys and headed out.

"My whole career is ruined!" Merritt cried.

Daniel and Jack shrugged and tried to go upstairs.

"Stop! I need ideas!"

"I've got nothing." Daniel said.

Jack tilted his head up. "I might have something." He cast a sly look at Daniel who raised his eyebrow, scared. Whenever Jack gets that kind of look something crazy is going to happen.

Twenty minutes later Daniel Atlas was transformed into an old lady. He was wearing a pink floral dress, gray wig, floppy pink hat, a huge pink purse, and a heck of a lot of Henley's makeup.

"Why me?" Daniel groaned, looking at his old lady-ish reflection in the bathroom mirror.

"Cuz I'm the idea man- duh." Jack said, "You look like the girl version of Merritt."

"I'm going to ignore that because you thought of an idea that might actually work." Merritt said as he walked in to join the two. "Wow, you look hot." He said sarcastically.

"Shut up. Let's just get this over with!"

The boys set up the studio downstairs in the TV room. Daniel sat on the couch and Merritt sat on the recliner with a notebook and pen in hand, ready to write. Jack had a camera ready for the pictures for the article.

"So, Ms. Gillan," Merritt started, "Why are you in your house all the time?"

"I don't know- I'm not Ms. Gillan!" Daniel retorted.

"Well, you sure look like her." Jack said as he snapped Daniel's picture.

"Just make something up." Merritt said.

Daniel groaned, "How did I end up with such messed up friends? Ok um… I am allergic to the outdoors so I have to stay inside all the time."

"Then why don't you let visitors come in?" Merritt pressed.

"Cuz, they like still have like outdoors germs on them."

"You sound like you're lying."

"THAT'S BECAUSE I AM LYING!"

"Point taken." Merritt scribbled some more in his notebook. "So do you have any pets?"

And that's how the interview went. With Merritt asking stupid questions and Daniel giving equally stupid answers, in Jack's opinion. Merritt sent in the finalized interview and the next day when they got the paper there was a quite interesting conversation with Henley regarding why Daniel was in a dress on the newspaper, but other than that Merritt's career was saved and he bragged like only a town paper interviewer could.

The next day, however, brought some other news.

Henley read the front page out loud, "We have been informed by Ms. Gillan herself that our recent new interviewer, Merritt Ritzer, made up the interview about her in the paper yesterday so we fired him and hired a new reporter, Cara Woods. Although we are very disappointed that we didn't get an interview with Ms. Gillan, but with a man in a dress, the good news is that we talked to Ms. Gillan on the phone for 1 minute and 42 seconds." Next to the article was a huge picture of Merritt.

"Well, you did make the front page." Daniel offered.

Merritt buried his face in his hands.

"Hey, Merrit!" Jack smirked pointing to the picture of him, "Looks like they got you're picture mixed up with that old guy reporter you replaced!"

Henley and Daniel had to stifle their laughs again. Merritt glared. "3… 2… 1." And Jack took off like a racecar.

_**Like it? Tell me about it! Review! :)**_

_**-NotUrAverageMusician**_

_**And this chapter is dedicated to my lovely little sis who is one of the coolest cats in town ;)**_


	12. Meet The Parents Night

**Hi guys! I am super sorry for being so late to update! I feel so bad, but things have been so hectic around here. My mom had to get another surgery because something went wrong in her last one so I've had to take care of her and stuff. This chapter is a request by daseyloverwholived. I feel so bad for being late on it, but I'm finished now and I like how it went- nice idea dasey! So here's chapter 12 everyone!**

"And then we spent the rest of the day going over the card trick over and over again and most times I would get it wrong, but every time I'd get it right he would be so proud and it was just the greatest feeling in the world." Henley smiled, felling like she was inside her own memory. "My dad was always supportive about me being a magician, he's the best guy ever. He always believes in me."

Jack sighed, no doubt wishing that was his relationship with his dad.

"I remember one time, me and my dad went walking in the woods and we went camping, just the two of us, no stinking older brother and he told me the scariest story I've ever heard." Merritt shared. The Horsemen all raised their eyebrows, "What? It was a good memory. And a great story, still gives me nightmares."

The Horsemen shuddered just to think of a story that could actually give Merritt nightmares.

"How about you Daniel?" Merritt asked, "Tell us about a time you had with your parents."

All the Horsemen's eyes were on Daniel, waiting for a story. Daniel shrugged, "My dad and I used to do this thing called the mega milkshake. We'd go to the store and buy all our favorite flavors and blend them all together in a blender." Daniel could almost taste the drink now.

"How'd it taste?" Jack wondered out loud.

Daniel laughed, "Pretty bad actually, but it was fun to do."

"Wow your dad seems really cool." Henley said.

The magician sighed, "Yeah, he was."

"What do you mean was?" Merritt asked, "Is he like…"

"No, no, no." Daniel said quickly, "It's not like that, it's just… once I started getting older my parents started to change. My dad became more interested in working in his law firm than spending any time with me and all my mom saw in me was a waste of her money because she hated that I wanted to be a magician when I grew up and not a lawyer like my dad." He paused, but the Horsemen urged him on. "Then we got into this huge fight when I turned sixteen and they kicked me out of the house. I went to go live with my aunt and uncle in New York and I got discovered as a magician there. I guess everything happens for a reason right?"

The rest of the magicians looked at each other in awe.

"Oh Danny, we had no idea!" Henley sympathized, giving him a hug. Daniel almost melted in her arms like a lovesick puppy at this.

"Don't worry about it, guys. It's in the past." Daniel explained, "I made my decision and they made theirs, I wouldn't change a thing. If things didn't turn out the way they did, I would be an unhappy lawyer in some cramped office building bored out of my mind. Seriously- can you picture me as a lawyer?" Daniel laughed.

Merritt raised his eyebrow, Daniel was acting the same way he notices Jack act when the word "parent" comes up. Jack always gets all shy and tries to make a joke out of things- just like Daniel was right now.

"Anyways, I have to get going now. Those groceries aren't going to buy themselves, right?" Another awkward laugh and Daniel left the house.

Merritt turned to his friends, "I think we need to help that man."

"Yeah," Henley agreed, "But I don't know what we can do. It seems like he doesn't want us to intervene."

"Well of course we have to intervene then, I'm gonna look them up in the yellow pages now." And that Merritt did. And one phone call later, Merritt convinced Mr. and Mrs. Atlas to come to their house for a dinner party. Merritt said that there was something very urgent that Daniel needed to tell them, which of course was not true, but Merritt couldn't think of any other excuse that made sense.

Henley took over decor. She went to the store and with their FBI credit card from Dylan, bought some fancy dining ware including a lace table cloth that Jack and Merritt were not so happy about owning.

Merritt was in charge of dinner. He made a nice roast beef from a random Betty Crocker book, but it came out burnt. Merritt was never really able to gain back his kitchen mojo after Marco's death. He ended up ordering Italian food and watching the football game.

Jack was in charge of distracting Daniel, something he was very talented at doing. He sent him on a wild goose chase to buy some carrots. But before Daniel left Jack emptied the gas tank of their car out until there was about enough gas for one mile. Daniel never checks the gas tank before driving and sure enough, on the freeway the car stopped. Jack had swiped his phone so Daniel was forced to walk home.

So it was only Merritt, Jack, and Henley home to say hi to the Atlas's when they first arrived. Merritt saw absolutely no resemblance to Daniel at all.

Daniel's mom, Georgia, had dyed blonde hair and she wore a pink dress with pearls on her neck. It made Henley seem really underdressed in her jeans and Harry Potter t-shirt. Daniel's dad, Reggie, was stiff and uptight (not unlike Daniel) but Merritt could already tell he had no sense of humor, at least Danny could take a joke. Reggie wore a brown suit with a navy blue tie and even Merritt knew that that combo didn't go together.

"Come on in, Mr. and Mrs. Atlas!" Henley said cheerfully, "Make yourself at home, Daniel will be here shortly." Merritt and Henley glared at Jack who shrunk down in his seat. Sometimes it was a curse to be so thorough in his distracting. Daniel probably wouldn't be home for another hour.

"Oh that's fine. My what a lovely meal!" Mrs. Atlas said, politely.

"Thanks," Merritt said, "I ordered it myself."

Reggie raised an eyebrow, but didn't say anything.

"So what about them Red Sox?" Jack said in an effort to start a conversation, "Can you believe they lost that game against the Cardinals? Crazy! Who are you rooting for?"

"I don't follow sports." Reggie replied in a stuck up way, "It's so stupid to watch people running around chasing a ball. Unbelievable what our youth watches these days."

With that Jack glued his mouth shut and didn't talk for the whole rest of the conversation.

"Those are some lovely pearls, Georgia." Henley complimented, trying to gain control of the conversation, "Where'd you get them?"

"They were left to me in my grandmother's will." Mrs. Atlas began to tear up, "They meant everything to her." Reggie shot daggers with his eyes towards Henley so she decided to shut up too.

Merritt decided to use what Daniel said he was obsessed with, "Tell me about your work, Mr. Atlas."

So for the next fourty minutes Mr. Atlas went on and on about how he has this difficult case with a kid who had been abused now stealing things and running off like "a crazed lunatic."

"I tell you, they just keep on running and stealing and someone needs to put them into place." He said.

Jack forgot about not speaking at that point, "But what if they have nowhere to go?"

Mr. Atlas was surprised at his outburst, "Why they can go back with their parent."

"But the parent is horrible to them. You can't ask a kid to go back to that!"

"We take the parent through classes to learn to be better to their kid."

"It's not like they're going to change after that!"

Just them the door opened and Daniel trudged in. "You would never believe my luck. I ran out of gas and I had to walk home!" Then he saw his parents in the house. "What are _they_ doing here?"

"Daniel!" Georgia ran up and hugged her son, "We're so happy to see you!"

"Huh?" said Daniel.

"We're so glad you've decided to change." Reggie said.

"Huh?" Daniel repeated.

"You've finally gotten your priorities straight, son. We knew you'd come around someday."

"What do you mean? Why are you even here?"

Georgia explained, "Your friend called us and he said that you had something very important to tell us, we assumed that you were going to say that you wanted to work at your father's law firm."

Daniel deflated, "That's why you're here, because you thought I had given up being a magician?"

Reggie nodded stiffly.

Daniel shook his head, "Well guess what? I will never stop doing magic and I'll never join your law firm! And as far as I can see you haven't changed either from those snobby adults who couldn't care less about anything that isn't about working or jewelry or money! You aren't my family," Daniel pointed to the Horsemen still at the table, "they are. And abracadabra- there's the door, if you could magically disappear right now that sure would be great."

Georgia's mouth was hanging open in a very un-ladylike way. Reggie glowered and ushered his wife out the door without another word to his son. The door slammed shut behind the couple.

Daniel sighed and sank into a chair, he combed his fingers through his hair.

The Horsemen looked at each other guiltily, they should have listened to their friend. They never should have invited his parents.

"Daniel, we're really sorry." Henley apologized, "We should never have done that." Merritt and Jack nodded in agreement.

"No, I'm glad you did." He lifted his head to meet their eyes, "Deep down I had always wondered if they'd changed, now I know they hadn't. And I'm not upset, you guys are the best family I could have."

"Group hug!" Merritt shouted, and all the Horsemen embraced each other.

"So who wants some Italian? I ordered it myself!"

**Please review! You guys are the best!**

**-NotUrAverageMusician**


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